Elizabeth Pelton
Born in 1993 in Fairfield, Conn., Liz Pelton grew up in Baltimore, MD swimming for North Baltimore Aquatic Club. She is from a large swimming family; her dad swam for Pittsburgh, her older brother, Gregory, swam for Harvard, and her other siblings, Mary and William, swam for North Baltimore Aquatic Club with Mary currently training at UCLA. She started swimming at the age 0f 5, despite her club's rule that you had to be 6 years old to join the team. Pelton burst onto the international stage in 2009 at the Jr. Pan Pacific Championships. Since she's qualified for the FINA World Championships as a member of Team USA and has been an NCAA champion.
High School
In 2009 Pelton qualified for the FINA World Championships in multiple events. Her best finish was in the 200-meter backstroke, where she finished 6th. She also competed in the 100 and 50-meter backstroke in Rome. She was scheduled to swim the 200 IM as well after finishing 2nd at the US National Championships, but opted out of the event to focus on her 100-meter backstroke. She was replaced by Ariana Kukors in that event.
She graduated high school in 2012 after being homeschooled for years, but mid-high school, …

With all due respect to Katie Ledecky’s earth-shattering world records, this week’s HardCore Swim takes a look at another USA Swimming star who put together an outstanding weekend, and whose swims might be lost in the frenzy of Ledecky’s world marks.

Stanford’s Maya DiRado had a huge summer and earned a spot on the US World Championship team. This season in the NCAA, she’s followed suit by breaking through her “outside looking in” position with a 1:52.50 to win the women’s 200 IM: her first career NCAA title.